Miss Elizabeth
In late 1985, the WWF did an angle (a fictional storyline) in which all the managers in the promotion were competing to offer their services to Randy Savage. During a match on July 30, 1985 in Poughkeepsie, NY, several managers were at ringside in hopes that he would name one of them as his new manager. After the match, Savage thanked the managers for their consideration and then asked that his new manager come to ringside. An attractive, unnamed woman then came down to the ring, and announcer Bruno Sammartino remarked, "She must be some sort of movie star," referring to her glamourous sex appeal. It was later revealed that her name was Miss Elizabeth. Elizabeth's WWF debut aired on the August 24, 1985, edition of WWF Prime Time Wrestling. From that point on, she was the manager of Randy Savage. Miss Elizabeth's first major angle was during Savage's feud with George "The Animal" Steele in 1986. In the angle, Steele fell in love with Elizabeth, angering Savage and leading to a series of grudge matches between him and Steele. Their feud was one of the WWF's most popular of the 1980s; it carried on for more than a year, thanks to the feral Steele's continued innocent crush on Elizabeth. She also figured prominently in Savage's 1986 feuds with Hulk Hogan and Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat. After injuring Steamboat's larynx, Savage lost his Intercontinental Title to Steamboat at WrestleMania III on March 29, 1987. The Savage-Steamboat match concluded with Steamboat defeating Savage. Steamboat later lost the title to The Honky Tonk Man. Honky's insistence that he was the greatest Intercontinental champion of all time instigated a challenge from Savage, the former champion. In their match, which aired on the October 3, 1987, edition of NBC's Saturday Night's Main Event, Honky shoved Elizabeth to the mat before assaulting Savage with a guitar. Elizabeth ran backstage and persuaded Hulk Hogan to rescue Savage to form The Mega Powers, running off Honky and his allies, Bret "The Hitman" Hart and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart. Throughout the Savage-Honky feud, a key point was Honky's claim that Elizabeth secretly wanted him more than Savage. In several of their matches, Honky would try to corner Elizabeth, although Savage would always beat him back. In other Savage-Honky matches, a woman named Peggy Sue (usually Sherri Martel, or a dressed-up Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart) would harass Elizabeth at ringside, creating an advantage for Honky. At the 1987 Slammy Awards, Honky named Elizabeth "Woman of the Year," but the honor was only to harass her and anger Savage; Savage quickly ran Honky off. The year 1988 was a pivotal one for Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth. Hulk Hogan, who had been the champion and the foundation upon which the WWF's popularity was built, lost the WWF World championship belt in a match against André the Giant. André the Giant then forfeited the belt to the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase due to an arrangement that they had prior to the match. President Jack Tunney declared that the belt cannot be forfeited to another individual. A tournament was held at WrestleMania IV to declare a new champion, which Randy Savage won, pinning Dibiase (with Hogan's help) in the finals. At the first ever SummerSlam, The Mega Powers teamed up against André the Giant and Ted DiBiase, The Mega Bucks with Savage's former tag-team partner Jesse "The Body" Ventura as the special guest referee. Most of the pre-match build-up centered on Elizabeth, who by this time was at the peak of her popularity. The tease for the match was that if things got bad, Elizabeth, billed as the secret weapon of The Mega Powers, was going to wear sexy red panties under her fancy clothes. Towards the end of match, André and Dibiase were in control, so Elizabeth got up on the apron and ripped her skirt off to reveal her underwear which distracted André, Dibiase and Ventura, giving Savage and Hogan time to recover after being knocked out of the ring. The Mega Powers quickly took advantage of the situation and won the match after Ventura made a reluctant three-count. Elizabeth became the catalyst in the uneasy – and ultimate breakup of – the Savage–Hogan relationship, particularly due to Hogan's overfriendly, overprotective attitude toward Elizabeth. At his behest, Elizabeth accompanied Hogan to ringside for several matches during the fall of 1988, including matches against King Haku, Akeem, and Bad News Brown that aired on Saturday Night's Main Event. In the match against Akeem, Elizabeth's safety was endangered by Akeem and his allies, Slick and Akeem's tag-team partner, The Big Boss Man (who wrestled together as The Twin Towers) when they began stalking Elizabeth. During a climatic point in the match where Hogan was being brutally beaten by Akeem, Big Boss Man grabbed Elizabeth and placed her in handcuffs, stopped only when Savage ran out to make the save; although he checked on Elizabeth's well-being, Savage appeared to be unconcerned about Hogan. At the 1988 Survivor Series, Hogan's obviously friendly behavior toward Elizabeth angered Savage, something pro-heel commentator Jesse Ventura played up during a post-match interview with Savage. Savage emphatically denied any animosity between himself and Hogan, but Savage would become increasingly jealous and wary of Hogan as the weeks went by. Concurrent with the Mega Powers' feud with the Twin Towers was Savage's feud with Bad News Brown. That feud started when Brown, during a guest appearance on "The Brother Love Show" talk segment, alleged that Elizabeth was "doing favors" for WWF President Jack Tunney (implying she wanted to protect Savage and his Heavyweight Championship reign from Brown). Savage quickly got revenge against Brown. Meanwhile, tension continued to build within the Mega Powers, and on The Main Event, aired on live television on February 3, 1989, From the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, WI., Savage could no longer contain his growing anger toward Hogan. The sequence of events began when Akeem threw Savage onto Elizabeth, who was knocked unconscious from the force of the blow. Hogan immediately ran to Elizabeth's aid and, distraught and fearing the worst, carried her to the backstage area for medical attention; the match continued in the meantime, with Akeem and Big Bossman working Savage over. Elizabeth eventually regained consciousness and asked Hogan to return to the ring. However, Savage, furious over being left to take a beating, slapped Hogan in the face and, after having some choice words, left him to face the Twin Towers alone. (Hogan eventually won the match singlehandedly). Following the match backstage, Savage and Hogan had a loud verbal argument while Elizabeth was receiving medical attention, which culminated with Savage blindsiding Hogan with the championship belt and beating him. In the buildup to the Hogan-Savage main event match at WrestleMania V, Savage appeared in a series of televised promos accusing Hogan of "lusting after Elizabeth" with video footage of past incidents, edited in a context to push Savage as a jealous, sore heel. Hogan responded by defending his behavior (with more complete footage from the same incidents, to push him as the face). After weeks of speculation as to whose corner she would stand in at WrestleMania V, Elizabeth announced she would stand in a "neutral" corner. During the Hogan-Savage match, Elizabeth got in the way of both wrestlers several times and was eventually sent from ringside; Hogan went on to win Savage's WWF Heavyweight Championship. Following WrestleMania V, Savage replaced Miss Elizabeth in favor of Sensational Sherri. For the remainder of 1989, Elizabeth's appearances were very sporadic. Elizabeth appeared at the 1989 SummerSlam, managing Hogan and Brutus Beefcake as they headlined the show against Savage and Zeus (who appeared with Sensational Sherri); Elizabeth, who rarely became physical with other wrestlers beforehand, tripped Sherri during a critical point in the match. Elizabeth also appeared at a few matches managing Hogan in matches against Savage. Elizabeth also briefly co-hosted WWF Wrestling Spotlight with Vince McMahon. Savage remained a heel for many more months, eventually dubbing himself "The Macho King" after defeating "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan for the WWF's "king" title in the September 1989. After Savage and Sherri began a heated feud with "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire near the end of 1989, Miss Elizabeth joined forces with Rhodes and Sapphire at WrestleMania VI, where the two couples were engaged in the WWF's first mixed tag-team match. When Sherri attempted to help Savage double-team Rhodes, Miss Elizabeth grabbed Sherri by the hair. While the two women faced off, Sapphire took advantage of the situation, kneeling down behind Sherri just as Miss Elizabeth pushed her. Sherri lost her balance and gave Sapphire enough advantage to pin Sherri for the win. Miss Elizabeth disappeared from WWF television until WrestleMania VII, when Savage lost a retirement match to The Ultimate Warrior. Upon his loss, Sherri began beating and kicking the defeated man until Elizabeth, who was sitting at ringside, entered the ring and defended Savage. Elizabeth grabbed Sherri by the hair and threw her out of the ring, reuniting Savage and Elizabeth. Macho Man punctuated the reunion by holding down the ropes for Elizabeth after years of her doing it for him. The couple then held a heavily promoted on-air wedding billed as "The Match Made in Heaven" at SummerSlam 1991 in New York's Madison Square Garden (the couple were officially married on December 30, 1984).6 At the wedding reception, Elizabeth opened a gift package containing a live snake, which frightened her; newly-turned-heel Jake "The Snake" Roberts and The Undertaker crashed the reception and attacked Savage. This started a feud between Roberts and Savage, where Elizabeth quickly figured prominently. The first high-profile Savage-Roberts match was at the Tuesday in Texas pay-per-view event, where, after Savage gained a pinfall victory, Roberts beat down Savage, then forced Elizabeth to beg him to stop the beating. Apparently dissatisfied with her begging, Roberts grabbed her by the hair and slapped her across her face. On the February 8, 1992 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Roberts, with a steel chair in tow, was waiting in the backstage area for Elizabeth and Savage to come through the curtain after a match. Roberts was about to strike Elizabeth with the chair, but Undertaker stopped him. This started Undertaker's feud with his former ally. In her final WWF angle, WWF Champion Ric Flair bragged that he dated Elizabeth before Savage met her. Flair's tagline was, "She was mine before she was yours." He showed photos of himself with Elizabeth in casual situations, which were later printed in an issue of WWF Magazine. It was later revealed that the photos were in fact pictures of Savage and Elizabeth, which Flair had doctored. Flair, with Mr. Perfect as his "executive consultant", said that they were going to show a nude photo of Elizabeth on the screen at WrestleMania VIII, although this did not occur. Nonetheless, Flair's claims set up his WrestleMania VIII match with Savage. During the match, Elizabeth made her way to ringside, against the wishes of WWF officials. After Savage pinned Flair to win the WWF Championship, an angry Flair cornered Elizabeth and began to kiss her; Elizabeth slapped Flair away, and Savage began beating Flair until ring officials broke the two up. Elizabeth's final WWF appearance took place on April 19, 1992 during an overseas tour of England; in that match, Savage pinned Shawn Michaels after Elizabeth, who had earlier been sent backstage, returned to prevent Sherri's interference on Michaels' behalf. Despite her departure, the Elizabeth-Flair storyline continued through most of the spring – the most notable highlight was Flair and Mr. Perfect playing a voice mail from a woman identifying herself as Elizabeth, saying she was "waiting at home" and that she "loved" him – until the Savage-Michaels match from England was aired on WWF Prime Time Wrestling in June. She died on May 1, 2003. Category:Current Alumni Category:Deceased Category:Managers Category:Slammy Award Winners